The only problem with thinking that no one knew about the friendship is, Lily and Snape were together on the train the first day of Hogwarts, sat together, and left the compartment together when James and Sirius started teasing Snape for wanting to be in Slytherin. Then there was Snape camped out at the door to Gryffindor tower and refusing to leave until Lily came out to talk to him. I thought the discussion not mentioning the Prank and talking about Snape's friends and Mary MacD was more or less public, not that they were hiding. YYMV. Anyway, what sort of friend hides that she's a friend with someone? What kind of friendship is that?
I think the reason no one mentioned it to Harry was because Rowling wanted to keep it a secret. If one's Creatrix closes one's mouth about a subject, there isn't much one can do. It does make everyone who must have known, especially Sirius, look like either clueless idiots or blatant liars, but IMO, Rowling wanted the big reveal on her time schedule.
I, too, thought there might be an unrequited crush on Snape's part. Lily had been talked up as some kind, sweet, desirable girl so of course everyone and their rivals would crush on her at one time or another. I thought it would be a hoot if they knew each other before Hogwarts, but I didn't think it would happen. I did like that touch, it was a good surprise. But to try and imply that no one knew about it, that Lily was so savvy that she dumped the Slytherin as soon as she was Sorted into Gryffindor, was just nasty on the author's part, IMO again.
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Date: 2008-03-14 03:19 am (UTC)I think the reason no one mentioned it to Harry was because Rowling wanted to keep it a secret. If one's Creatrix closes one's mouth about a subject, there isn't much one can do. It does make everyone who must have known, especially Sirius, look like either clueless idiots or blatant liars, but IMO, Rowling wanted the big reveal on her time schedule.
I, too, thought there might be an unrequited crush on Snape's part. Lily had been talked up as some kind, sweet, desirable girl so of course everyone and their rivals would crush on her at one time or another. I thought it would be a hoot if they knew each other before Hogwarts, but I didn't think it would happen. I did like that touch, it was a good surprise. But to try and imply that no one knew about it, that Lily was so savvy that she dumped the Slytherin as soon as she was Sorted into Gryffindor, was just nasty on the author's part, IMO again.